Four Green Hill Students Selected for National Committee to Tackle Youth Issues

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Four students at Green Hill School — who were instrumental in getting legislation passed last year that rolled back laws that juveniles charged with certain crimes must be tried in adult court — were recently appointed to a national committee to advocate for juveniles in the justice system.

Twelve young people nationwide were appointed to the Emerging Leaders Committee (ELC), which is an arm of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice (CJJ), and includes youth from key under-represented demographics and lifestyles.

Green Hill School is a medium/maximum security facility for juvenile offenders located in Chehalis and managed by DSHS’ Juvenile Justice and Rehabilitation Administration. 

After touting success last year at the Washington State Legislature with the passage of Senate Bill 6160, which was signed by Gov. Jay Inslee in March 2018, more eyes focused on advocacy from incarcerated youths in Washington, said Garrett Comer, one of the four residents appointed.

“So they see Washington state as like an alpha state when it comes to reform in the juvenile justice system,” he said, adding that this new appointment will allow them to take issues close to the heart to a national audience.

In addition to allowing juveniles charged with certain serious crimes to be tried in juvenile court, SB 6160 also allowed for incarcerated youths convicted of certain crimes to remain in juvenile facilities until the age of 25 rather than 21.

A committee of Green Hill students are now currently advocating for the passage of Senate Bill 5737, which would widen the instances a juvenile would be able to be tried in juvenile court rather than adult court. Additionally, it would retroactively allow current offenders to stay in juvenile facilities until the age of 25.

Advocates for the bill said juvenile facilities are more in tune with how to treat young offenders and better prepared to offer effective rehabilitation, and cited research saying a person’s brain isn’t fully developed until their mid 20s.

Aaron Toleafoa, another youth appointed to ELC, was part of the national committee last year, too, and was joined by another Green Hill student who has since been released. He said its members work to raise awareness on myriad topics and are given the chance to address stakeholders that affect them: from the justice system to homelessness, foster care, LGBTQ rights and more.

The appointments are year-long and involve monthly conference calls and a large national conference that’s traditionally held in Washington D.C., that incarcerated youths may attend via video technology.

However, the nation’s capital may not be the venue this year, said Jennifer Redman, superintendent of Green Hill. Washington state might instead serve as the venue for this year’s conference in August. Although the move hasn’t been confirmed by CJJ, Redman said it was the advocacy work coming out of Washington state and Green Hill, specifically, that created the possibility.

Joseph Huntley, another of the appointed youths, said he hopes to use the opportunity to bring change that might prevent kids from going through the justice system.

“I guess just use my opportunity to speak for people that don’t have an opportunity that I do, like the platform,” said Comer, when asked what he hopes to do with the new appointment.

Guillermo Padilla, who was also appointed, said he was encouraged by the work other Green Hill students embarked on to make tangible change in the system, and decided that was a path he wanted to take, too.

Each was selected after an application process that Comer likened to filling out a job application. There were 61 applicants nationwide, and 12 were selected.

Redman said she felt the fact that a quarter of this year’s ELC consists of youth from Green Hill is significant.

Toleafoa concurred, calling it a testament to the work they’ve done thus far. He said their work at Green Hill started out innoccuously enough — like advocating for food they liked more, and morphed into tackling things they felt were obstacles to their own rehabilitation. Since then,  they have been invited to speak at different venues.

Green Hill plays host to its own annual event called Pursuit for Change, which lets students address stakeholders in the criminal justice system in a panel format. 

They’ve traditionally told their stories of how they ended up incarcerated, and contextualized their crimes with stories of rough upbringings. They also addressed their advocacy work at the most recent event, saying how they felt certain laws held back their rehabilitation rather than bolster it.

Cindy Blue, who works at Green Hill to advocate for its students and assist in their reentry, said the crew of Green Hill advocates has become very apt and effective in sharing their stories and using them to educate. 

“And through those stories, through their willingness to be vulnerable and share their life histories, they’re creating change in the system,” said Blue.